Music stands!

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I have a variety of music gear I sit on tables. I hunch over and strain to see which knobs I’m twisting. So I figured I should make something to tilt them off the table. Simple..right? I got to prototyping.

I went through a couple of different sizes, but the angles were still too dramatic and I hadn’t considered the dimensions of the equipment. So after a few more cardboard prototypes, I finalized the design.

I procured some solid pine wood from a local hardware store (making sure I had more than enough), and consulted with Ben on the best approach. I’d use the miter saw and some guides, and the cuts would be clear and consistent. It seemed straightforward… but in the end, of course it wasn’t.

The first challenge was dealing with the large size of the wood I got. I really didn’t want to cut it down, so I tried clamping it around the miter saw..

trying to hold the wood in place for clamping

clamped!…

buuut it was not gonna be level 🙁

So I resigned to chop my wood up and get the first cuts ready. I had a hard time finding a stop block that had a right angle and was sufficiently large…I even tried (and failed) at making my own.

first take at a stop block, but its not quite aligned…

this is not how you attach to pieces of wood together.

and finally ready to go

So finally everything is ready to go! I worked up the courage to make my first cut aaaannnnd it couldn’t reach all the way through.

Shit.

So I added another piece to bring the wood further out. That worked albeit made everything less square. I went to 0 the saw and make my next cut and of course my stop block was so small it was on the rotating part of the saw – I had to move it… so much for efficiency. …. and then I completely shanked a cut. I gave up for the night.

So the next day I sought John’s advice for how best to secure the material. He showed me all the ways you can clamp on a miter saw (thanks John!) but unfortunately I was gonna have to continue as I did before. At a certain point I gave up on the “push” block that was bringing my material out and just resigned to clean things up on the band saw.

Clamping 101 with John

Sooo close to a complete cut

second cut (after doing this I resigned to use the band saw before doing the second cuts)

cleaning up on the band saw

and finishing up the second cut

This process was still brutal but it was getting done…but unfortunately nothing was quite aligned 🙁

Time to get to work on the bases. I quickly realized that I again didn’t really think through how I’d account for the thickness of my material. I had a rough idea but I’d still have to work through it. I’d cut the bases a little shorter than planned and sand out the bottoms to give them some space.

So I got to work on getting the bases done and started staining my side triangles with spray paint.

spray painting under the hood

I probably should have laid something down cuz now there was gook everywhere

added the paper this time…

cutting bases. I did the first cuts on the miter and finished on the band saw

all done but they were pretty rough

i hacked at them on the sander…. not the best work but I was done 🙂

gave myself gray hair from the dust

I painted my bases and got to prepping putting it all together. Unfortunately I couldn’t use the pocket jig and screws until John was back the next am so glue would have to do.

using my parts to line things up

clamping! these were the only types of clamps I could get on there succesfully

I screwed up a few times and panicked

but it worked out fine

Aaaand I gave up at 3. But in a day after the glue has settled, I’ll try them out.

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2 thoughts on “Music stands!”

Nice work. Like we discussed, making those angled cuts is not trivial.

The reason the miter saw was not making a full cut at the angle was the same thing that happened when I was showing you. The clamp was getting in the way of the saw. If you moved the clamp, I suspect, you could have made full cuts. We can look at if you’d like.

Glad you rolled with the punches and changed from pocket screws to glue.